A hypertensive snow bird

A copy of mdBriefCase entitled “A hypertensive snow bird” was distributed with an issue of CMAJ this spring. This issue of mdBriefCase is biased in favour of products from the company sponsoring it, Boehringer Ingelheim.

The print version of this edition of mdBriefCase does not mention drug names, but readers are advised to go to www.mdbriefcase.com to see how the authors would treat this patient. On this Web site we are told that the patient had a cough associated with the angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor that she had been started on and was switched to the angiotensin receptor blocker telmisartan. Boehringer Ingelheim makes telmisartan.

The recommendation to use an angiotensin receptor blocker is made despite the fact that on another part of the Web site (www.mdbriefcase.com//studies/hyper/en/treatment.asp) readers are told that “thiazide-type diuretics (either alone or in combination with other drug classes) should be the initial therapy for most patients with hypertension in the absence of diabetes. In the Antihypertensive and Lipid Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT), diuretics showed unsurpassed efficacy in preventing cardiovascular complications of hypertension.” In the case in question there is no mention of the patient having diabetes.

The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) should not be granting Mainpro credits for material that has commercial biases.

Competing interests: None declared.